Kevin bids his last cheerio

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Just after 8.30am yesterday, the Kevin Heinze Garden Centre,
Doncaster: The mumsy tones of Tonya Roberts take on a talcum
softness as she welcomes Kevin Heinze to his last four hours of
radio life.

Two men standing off to the side are trying to decide how Heinze
looks: sad or just thoughtful. The men are both a little deaf and
so they whisper with the daft obviousness of children. No one minds
them.

There are about 40 people so far gathered under the sail
shadecloth on the forecourt among the potted plants and flower beds
and a little creek. The prevailing hair colour is grey; about a
third of the men have weathered bald patches, six have hearing
aids.

Heinze is 76. He has been doing the gardening program with the
ABC for 37 years. He has an audience that goes way back. This month
he was told by daggy-cool 774 that he wouldn't be returning next
year.

So how does he look? Chin down, a little dark and heavy in the
face - sad and thoughtful.

Soon after, as Roberts is joined by Alan Kohler for the finance
segment, the whispering blossoms into unashamed conversation - and
Heinze wanders away from the broadcast table to mingle. He spends
the show moving between the live audience and radio land; at every
"hello" and slow handshake breaking into that easy and familiar
grin, toothy and wry.

And so I get to ask Heinze that most ridiculous of questions:
"How do you feel?"

"Aw, I really don't mind," he tells me with a sigh, raspy with
his asthma. "I wouldn't have minded staying on for another year or
so, but it's all right to finish up now.

"What worries me more is what's happening to gardening.

"You've got these big houses and small yards and everybody's
landscaping instead of putting in a garden. An hour a week would do
it."

Not tanned but browned like the earth, for Heinze it's always
been about the soil and the seeds and hours on the knees - and
given there's no real gardening theme to our conversation he's
quickly taken over by the greys with green thumbs.

Meanwhile, more people are trickling in - by 10am they're
bringing their own chairs. There are many cameras out now. When
Heinze returns temporarily to the microphone, three women stand
rump to rump as they take his photograph - Cannes style.

By now Roberts has told everybody that there is tea and coffee -
$1, including a biscuit; 20 cents for cordial. Down by the creek
too many sausages have been sizzled and can somebody eat them,
please?

More than 200 people are here now. Ask anyone of them how they
feel about Heinze and they say the following words: "He's a really
lovely man."

The Kevin Heinze Garden Centre isn't a commercial venture but a
place to which Heinze lent his name where disabled people come to
do gardening in the company of volunteers. For years he toured the
state talking to schools. Over the years he has raised more than
half a million dollars for cancer research following the death of
his eight-year-old daughter, Kim, in 1974.

In the last half hour of the show, everyone is quiet except when
they laugh at Heinze's jokes. He keeps them coming to the end.